The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

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Tabata and “magnified front covers of his more important works”. The meeting took the form of a public lecture by L Rajah, which sought to pay Tabata a “high tribute” as “an expression of … appreciation and gratitude for [his] tremendous influence”. The biographic lecture was immediately published by APDUSA (Natal) as the New Unity Movement’s special tribute to Tabata. 157 Rajah had undertaken the “difficult task” of rereading Tabata’s “major works”, 158 from which he extract[ed] passages which … dazzled with their clarity and depth of thought, crispness of formulation, total absence of ambiguity, vastness of breadth and vision and … great relevance to … current political events…. 159 Those in the New Unity Movement, Rajah argued, stood tall “precisely because [they stood] on the shoulders of political giants of the calibre and stature of I.B. Tabata”. In claiming him as a political ancestor of the New Unity Movement, Rajah asserted that “at no stage did Tabata ever present his ideas as his personal property – patented and copyright”. “Such an approach” was “anathema to him”. 160 At the meeting, “the atmosphere” had been “one of triumph rather than dejection or mourning”. While Tabata’s funeral had been “abused by his epigones” and “official followers”, who “chose to level attacks” on the New Unity Movement, Rajah’s tribute had been “prepared with due dignity and decorum”, “paid in humility and admiration for a great revolutionary, leader and teacher”. 161 It was the NUM, this suggested, who were more deserving of Tabata as an ancestor. This political dispute between UMSA and the NUM over the political legacy of I.B. Tabata was not the only biographic contest that reared its head in the wake of his death. 157 APDUSA Views, October 1991 (Special Issue: A Tribute to I.B. Tabata), Foreword. I would like to thank R.O. Dudley for giving me a copy of this publication. 158 APDUSA Views, October 1991 (Special Issue: A Tribute to I.B. Tabata), Foreword. 159 APDUSA Views, October 1991 (Special Issue: A Tribute to I.B. Tabata), Foreword. 160 APDUSA Views, October 1991 (Special Issue: A Tribute to I.B. Tabata), p 17. 161 APDUSA Views, October 1991 (Special Issue: A Tribute to I.B. Tabata), Foreword. 494
Almost unexpectedly, at his funeral in October 1990, a Christian, religious element made itself felt alongside the socialist and the secular political. After clergy in the Queenstown area had expressed their reluctance to officiate due to Tabata’s political profile, two ministers came in from Port Elizabeth. While Tabata’s body was with the Queenstown undertakers, services and prayers had been held every evening for the whole week leading up to the funeral. It was the ministers who opened the funeral proceedings with a prayer, after which hymns were sung. Then “the political side” started with speeches and songs. Most of the mourners were local Lesseyton members of the church. “When all that was finished, the religion took over”. When the time had come for the procession to the cemetery, the proceedings were conducted through religious ritual. For Sarah Magdalene Tabata, there was no contradiction in this. Her late brother‐in‐law had been brought up in a religious home. He may have declared as a young person that he was “going forth to fight for [his] people”. But it was very important that the home “support[ed] him with prayers”. Moreover, “the struggle ha[d] a lot to do with religion”. 162 But in some ways, the prominence and assuredness of the religious at I.B. Tabata’s funeral was surprising. The funerals of Ben Kies and Victor Wessels in Cape Town in the 1970s had been strictly secular and political, in keeping with the atheism of the deceased. The same had been the case with Leo Sihlali whose funeral took place in the Mount Frere Municipal Hall, since no church was available and a local priest had refused to officiate. It was suggested that this absence of religious funery mediation was appropriate for Sihlali, who had been “an unrepentant Marxist and an uncompromising revolutionary”. Also, Tabata’s entry into the socialist movement in the 1930s in Cape Town had been expressly bound up with a turn away from religion and the concept of God. Both Cadoc Kobus, who had also joined the WPSA, and Ernest Mancoba, who had spent time with Tabata in Cape Town in the 1930s, and who had sold copies of the 162 Ciraj Rassool, Interview with Sarah Magdalene Tabata, Lesseyton, 12 July 1995, assisted by Ayanda Bashe. 495
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The Individual, Auto/biography and
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation
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committee members selected me to ta
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements
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Authorship, individuation and the b
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ABBREVIATIONS AAC All‐African Con
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INTRODUCTION The research for this
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transformation in the Eastern Cape?
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South African society provided the
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manifest dishonesty. Through a case
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genealogy of biographic mediation w
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tribute to Tabata that Taylor const
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CHAPTER ONE AUTO/BIOGRAPHY, NARRATI
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self‐constitution and the “styl
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intercourse entailed in this metaph
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1930s, with decreasing institutiona
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psychological characteristics” wh
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entextualised in diverse ways”, c
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While all mankind may be the subjec
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life’ and career as the focus hav
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development, a “narrative of inte
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denies the centrality of the subjec
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story, creating a ‘transferential
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een backward‐looking. Their commu
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[w]e need to attend to the historic
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enacted, lived in particular conjun
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‘representivity’ would constitu
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through particular enunciative stra
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ones. 114 Modernity gave rise to li
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These, in turn, have a profound eff
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are also to be found in the ‘stor
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historian, personal and political,
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sites of the ‘memorial complex’
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These biographies of ‘great polit
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der Post family. 17 Even Bertolt Br
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While the limitations of Jones’ b
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and work had emphasised the serious
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accused Mother Teresa of promulgati
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Mother Teresa, “hoping some of he
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sainthood”, the amount of miracle
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This biographic world of saint vene
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dared to be that person”. She “
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and popular circuits of exchange an
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institutions that make up the exhib
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participation in annual heroic comm
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Biographic memorial productions hav
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myths, while radio and television p
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the monument was removed during the
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about the past, as “political eli
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suggesting that use was merely made
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and “The Annual Salute to Greatne
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the use of his image”. 106 Moreov
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In this radical biographic interpre
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In addition to this standard biogra
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National Civil Rights Museum in Mem
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Although Mao’s image had been use
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more varied … [and] far more exci
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esistance hero in general, of hope
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issues about image‐making and aut
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Lumumba who could stand in oppositi
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CHAPTER THREE RESISTANCE STUDIES AN
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in “a wide range of inventive pol
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marginalised, grassroots people [an
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Since the 1970s, the terrain of res
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In an obvious sense, these studies
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Under the conditions of deepening r
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Crucially, this feature found expre
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established through his professiona
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scepticism, 35 the use of this noti
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“glimpse into the inner mind of o
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Higgs and Steven Gish also followed
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understand the background, politica
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national and land questions” conc
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Higgs’ study was largely a chrono
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South Africans to protest against t
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In these traditional ‘masculinist
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1980s in South African scholarship,
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academic institutions involved in t
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struggles over municipal controls d
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that during the 1950s, a period see
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away from biographic images of cons
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orthography with “self‐appointe
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middle section had vacillated. Anot
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Biography has also been a vehicle f
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After collecting oral testimony fro
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and ‘jumping the fence’ led to
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whose value depended on their accur
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(probably Nkadimeng) in a resettlem
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determine the voice and style in wh
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memory into a written academic prod
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Biography for social history was a
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esistance history sought to provide
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and La Hausse were completed by sch
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consciousness, conversations, and/o
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A foray into biography in the work
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ceased to be the major site for the
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study did not go far enough in the
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continued political role”. It was
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In exploring these issues of image,
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While Clingman’s study has posed
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state they contested”, as the col
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focusing on the creation of systems
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and survival against the onslaught
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and reconciliation in South Africa.
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accustomed to clear hierarchies bet
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South African public history. This
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unifier and a liberator of the mind
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these ways, the Mayibuye Centre was
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together, these booklets attempted
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Biography also provided the basis o
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As part of these transformations, M
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leader, Bill Andrews. 58 Written fr
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It is this biographic impetus which
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the post‐apartheid present, and t
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Ngcelwane, whose family had had bee
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of softnesses and roughnesses” of
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extended to other arenas of public
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These images of the Business Day re
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once stood in central Pretoria, was
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declared a national monument on 12
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University’s Mark Haywood felt th
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Ministry of Water Affairs and Fores
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to the present. This project would
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was missed to develop a complex her
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contemplation and celebration were
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Morris Isaacson High School, Regina
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The Museum was really inaugurated,
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through biographic presentation. Bu
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2003. Thabo Mbeki expressed the poi
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In contrast, Ronnie Kasrils, Modise
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narratives and moral trajectories o
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visual terms as part of a president
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especially one who had been a long
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applications had to make a biograph
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In April 2003, the Nelson Mandela F
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ooklet was organised as a chronolog
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single sitting”. 191 However, it
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In 1999, Anthony Sampson, who had b
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eating breakfast and even shaving a
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(Mandela’s birth place), on the b
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“triumph of the human spirit”,
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sought to contest the tendency for
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deepening in Robben Island’s cult
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follow the advice of Anthony Sampso
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was asked to speak about the accuse
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new conditions of exile was the con
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importance of relations of cultural
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construction of Nelson Mandela has
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iography in public and commercial s
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artist, Jacob Khumalo, who had exhi
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epresentatives on the Nelson Mandel
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eliance, self‐respect and self‐
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PART TWO BEYOND MODERNIST HISTORY:
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marginality. Among the materials in
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Gradually, in drips and drabs, the
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While Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape
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for the field of political biograph
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microfilm collection contained a su
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and Karis may have received from Ta
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and reserve dwellers, arguing that
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Indeed, in this genealogy, the most
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and was conducted as part of a wide
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In making these assessments, Hirson
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policy that had envisaged redivided
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formation of APDUSA in January 1961
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“effectively … smashed within t
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opportunities that presented themse
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and verbal performances, which have
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political leadership was exercised
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CHAPTER SIX FROM COLLECTIVE LEADERS
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special protest meetings in convene
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upture was coming to a head, when h
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principles”. 18 Another aspect of
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included on the back cover of such
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political training did not take pla
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pertinent to the themes of this cha
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cause, rather than the leader”. T
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341
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343
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345
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347
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asic passport‐type pen picture sa
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their prominent placement in public
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353
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of individualised leadership may ha
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political positions which rejected
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interesting that Taylor’s first w
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handwriting, which had been prepare
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ehabilitation. 96 This did not stop
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ooted in the past”, he suggested,
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During 1949 and 1950, amid mounting
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“colour and strength” were impo
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Elsewhere on the left, Tabata’s b
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occurred in which Tabata was subjec
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Tabata, as an individual, bore a po
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making them “more careful about w
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teachers qualified to speak on matt
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Education for Barbarism marked Taba
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fulfil the same function” as ‘T
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state of anonymity to their true st
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of persecution and state harassment
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While Tabata’s presidency may hav
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final choice between the subterfuge
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circulated as the embodiment of its
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CHAPTER SEVEN DORA TAYLOR AND THE N
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Soon after Tabata arrived in Cape T
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historical understandings, Taylor
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was “tolerably easy”. In fact,
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her text had been “written in its
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the eastern Cape about which she wr
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While she was writing The Rôle of
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out of the strains and pressures of
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who were involved in the movement c
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moved into Gool’s newly rented ho
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off by expressing his “envy” of
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They had a full life and she a full
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emotional and sexual desires as the
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Fashioning Tabata’s biography Vir
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continued to rework and re‐edit T
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us”. Goolam Gool, he had argued,
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political practice”. Tabata assur
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Nine that the AAC and Unity Movemen
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authored pamphlets aimed at “clar
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production of I.B. Tabata made a mi
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political work in the movement, in
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political leadership. By that time,
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unleashing different forms of biogr
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their political exchanges. 9 Later,
Page 457 and 458: where “fierce debates and discuss
Page 459 and 460: education as well as mechanisms of
Page 461 and 462: identification”. This identity cl
Page 463 and 464: need for leadership”. Tabata invi
Page 465 and 466: Likewise, concepts of strategic val
Page 467 and 468: was also invited to join along with
Page 469 and 470: fundamental and genuine manner and
Page 471 and 472: them. Sihlali’s presidentship of
Page 473 and 474: expressed had been “essentially h
Page 475 and 476: By the 1950s, increased internal bl
Page 477 and 478: way of their own greatness?” 76 A
Page 479 and 480: “suspended” from the movement,
Page 481 and 482: Thereafter, Alexander and his comra
Page 483 and 484: “mounting to a climax”. Jane Go
Page 485 and 486: From around 1960, leaders of the Un
Page 487 and 488: The movement’s ‘architect’ al
Page 489 and 490: with the other liberation movements
Page 491 and 492: The ADC was a means of Tabata “ri
Page 493 and 494: ureaucratic abuse and of trying to
Page 495 and 496: econstituted APDUSA represented an
Page 497 and 498: NUM. They found instead a hostility
Page 499 and 500: significance of deceased ‘heroes
Page 501 and 502: A man … surrounded by a sea of pe
Page 503 and 504: and Alie and Ursula Fataar had assi
Page 505 and 506: 491
Page 507: in “his contribution” to the li
Page 511 and 512: 497
Page 513 and 514: community of Lesseyton interred one
Page 515 and 516: The final entry of Tabata’s body
Page 517 and 518: heritage sites and collections. I w
Page 519 and 520: discovered heritage constructions o
Page 521 and 522: national heritage, even when those
Page 523 and 524: elevant information from my researc
Page 525 and 526: disrespectful. And the fact that th
Page 527 and 528: what I offer here is more than a st
Page 529 and 530: (e) Central Archives Depot, Pretori
Page 531 and 532: Ilizwi leSizwe, Vol. 1, No 2, 18 Oc
Page 533 and 534: (b) Other Videos Hell’s Angel: Mo
Page 535 and 536: (f) CD‐Roms Nelson Mandela: The s
Page 537 and 538: Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museu
Page 539 and 540: 7. INTERVIEWS AND RECORDINGS OF SPE
Page 541 and 542: William Beinart and Colin Bundy, Hi
Page 543 and 544: Stephen Clingman, The Novels of Nad
Page 545 and 546: Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Tra
Page 547 and 548: Dominic LaCapra, Writing History, W
Page 549 and 550: David Morley and Ken Worpole (eds),
Page 551 and 552: James D Sexton (ed), Son of Tecum U
Page 553 and 554: Susan G Wynne (Compiler), South Afr
Page 555 and 556: Elizabeth S Cohen, ‘Court Testimo
Page 557 and 558: Brian Elliot, ‘Biography, Family
Page 559 and 560:
Baruch Hirson, ‘Ruth Schechter: F
Page 561 and 562:
Desiree Lewis, ‘Winnie Mandela: T
Page 563 and 564:
Bill Nasson, ‘A Sharecropper’s
Page 565 and 566:
Hilary Sapire, ‘African Political
Page 567 and 568:
Dora Taylor, ‘They Speak of Afric
Page 569 and 570:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, ‘Cosmopolit
Page 571 and 572:
Twentieth Century’, Paper present
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